Psalm 11

SUBJECT. Charles Simeon gives an excellent summary of this Psalm
in the following sentences:"The Psalms are a rich repository of
experimental knowledge. David, at the different periods of his life,
was placed in almost every situation in which a believer, whether
rich or poor, can be placed; in these heavenly compositions he
delineates all the workings of the heart. He introduces, too, the
sentiments and conduct of the various persons who were accessory
either to his troubles or his joys; and thus sets before us a
compendium of all that is passing in the hearts of men throughout the
world. When he penned this Psalm he was under persecution from Saul,
who sought his life, and hunted him 'as a partridge upon the
mountains.' His timid friends were alarmed for his safety, and
recommended him to flee to some mountain where he had a hiding-place,
and thus to conceal himself from the rage of Saul. But David, being
strong in faith, spurned the idea of resorting to any such
pusillanimous expedients, and determined confidently to repose his
trust in God."To assist us to remember this short,
but sweet Psalm, we will give it the name of "THE SONG OF THE
STEADFAST."

DIVISION. From 1 to 3, David describes the temptation with which
he was assailed, and from 4 to 7, the arguments by which his courage
was sustained.

Verse 1. These verses contain an account of a temptation to distrust
God, with which David was, upon some unmentioned occasion, greatly
exercised. It may be, that in the days when he was in Saul's court,
he was advised to flee at a time when this flight would have been
charged against him as a breach of duty to the king, or a proof of
personal cowardice. His case was like that of Nehemiah, when his
enemies, under the garb of friendship, hoped to entrap him by
advising him to escape for his life. Had he done so, they could then
have found a ground of accusation. Nehemiah bravely replied, "Shall
such a man as I flee?" and David, in a like spirit, refuses to
retreat, exclaiming, "In the Lord put I my trust: how say ye to my
soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain?" When Satan cannot
overthrow us by presumption, how craftily will he seek to ruin us by
distrust! He will employ our dearest friends to argue us out of our
confidence, and he will use such plausible logic, that unless we once
for all assert our immovable trust in Jehovah, he will make us like
the timid bird which flies to the mountain whenever danger presents
itself.

Verse 2. How forcibly the case is put! The bow is bent, the arrow is
fitted to the string: "Flee, flee, thou defenceless bird, thy safety
lies in flight; begone, for thine enemies will send their shafts into
thy heart; haste, haste, for soon wilt thou be destroyed!" David
seems to have felt the force of the advice, for it came home to
his soul; but yet he would not yield, but would rather dare the
danger than exhibit a distrust in the Lord his God. Doubtless the
perils which encompassed David were great and imminent; it was quite
true that his enemies were ready to shoot privily at
him.

Verse 3. It was equally correct that the very foundations of
law and justice were destroyed under Saul's unrighteous
government: but what were all these things to the man whose trust was
in God alone? He could brave the dangers, could escape the enemies,
and defy the injustice which surrounded him. His answer to the
question, "What can the righteous do?" would be the counter-question,
"What cannot they do?" When prayer engages God on our side, and when
faith secures the fulfillment of the promise, what cause can there be
for flight, however cruel and mighty our enemies? With a sling and a
stone, David had smitten a giant before whom the whole hosts of
Israel were trembling, and the Lord, who delivered him from the
uncircumcised Philistine, could surely deliver him from King Saul and
his myrmidons. There is no such word as "impossibility" in the
language of faith; that martial grace knows how to fight and conquer,
but she knows not how to flee.

Verse 4. David here declares the great source of his unflinching
courage. He borrows his light from heavenfrom the great central orb
of deity. The God of the believer is never far from him; he is not
merely the God of the mountain fastnesses, but of the dangerous
valleys and battle plains."Jehovah is in his holy temple."
The heavens are above our heads in all regions of the earth, and so
is the Lord ever near to us in every state and condition. This is a
very strong reason why we should not adopt the vile suggestions of
distrust. There is one who pleads his precious blood in our behalf in
the temple above, and there is one upon the throne who is never deaf
to the intercession of his Son. Why, then, should we fear? What plots
can men devise which Jesus will not discover? Satan has doubtless
desired to have us, that he may sift us as wheat, but Jesus is in the
temple praying for us, and how can our faith fail? What attempts can
the wicked make which Jehovah shall not behold? And since he is in
his holy temple, delighting in the sacrifice of his Son, will he not
defeat every device, and send us a sure deliverance?"Jehovah's throne is in the
heavens;" he reigns supreme. Nothing can be done in heaven, or
earth, or hell, which he doth not ordain and over-rule. He is the
world's great Emperor. Wherefore, then, should we flee? If we trust
this King of kings, is not this enough? Cannot he deliver us without
our cowardly retreat? Yes, blessed be the Lord our God, we can salute
him as Jehovah-nissi; in his name we set up our banners, and instead
of flight, we once more raise the shout of war."His eyes behold." The eternal
Watcher never slumbers; his eyes never know a sleep. "His eyelids
try the children of men:" he narrowly inspects their actions,
words, and thoughts. As men, when intently and narrowly inspecting
some very minute object, almost close their eyelids to exclude every
other object, so will the Lord look all men through and through. God
sees each man as much and as perfectly as if there were no other
creature in the universe. He sees us always; he never removes his eye
from us; he sees us entirely, reading the recesses of the soul as
readily as the glancings of the eye. Is not this a sufficient ground
of confidence, and an abundant answer to the solicitations of
despondency? My danger is not hid from him; he knows my extremity,
and I may rest assured that he will not suffer me to perish while I
rely alone on him. Wherefore, then, should I take wings of a timid
bird, and flee from the dangers which beset me?

Verse 5. "The Lord trieth the righteous:" he doth not hate
them, but only tries them. They are precious to him, and therefore he
refines them with afflictions. None of the Lord's children may hope
to escape from trial, nor, indeed, in our right minds, would any of
us desire to do so, for trial is the channel of many blessings.

"Tis my happiness below
Not to live without the cross;
But the Saviour's power to know,
Sanctifying every loss.

* * * * * * * *

Trials make the promise sweet;
Trials give new life to prayer;
Trials bring me to his feet
Lay me low, and keep me there.

Did I meet no trials here
No chastisement by the way
Might I not, with reason, fear
I should prove a cast-away?

Bastards may escape the rod,
Sunk in earthly vain delight;
But the true-born child of God
Must notwould not, if he might."

William Cowper.

Is not this a very cogent reason why we should not distrustfully
endeavour to shun a trial?for in so doing we are seeking to avoid a
blessing.

Verse 6. "But the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul
hateth:" why, then, shall I flee from these wicked men? If God
hateth them, I will not fear them. Haman was very great in the palace
until he lost favour, but when the king abhorred him, how bold were
the meanest attendants to suggest the gallows for the man at whom
they had often trembled! Look at the black mark upon the faces of our
persecutors, and we shall not run away from them. If God is in the
quarrel as well as ourselves, it would be foolish to question the
result, or avoid the conflict. Sodom and Gomorrah perished by a fiery
hail, and by a brimstone shower from heaven; so shall all the
ungodly. They may gather together like Gog and Magog to battle, but
the Lord will rain upon them "an overflowing rain, and great
hailstones, fire, and brimstone:" Ezekiel 38:22. Some expositors
think that in the term "horrible tempest," there is in the Hebrew an
allusion to that burning, suffocating wind, which blows across the
Arabian deserts, and is known by the name of Simoom. "A burning
storm," Lowth calls it, while another great commentator reads it
"wrathwind;" in either version the language is full of terrors. What
a tempest will that be which shall overwhelm the despisers of God!
Oh! what a shower will that be which shall pour out itself for ever
upon the defenceless heads of impenitent sinners in hell! Repent, ye
rebels, or this fiery deluge shall soon surround you. Hell's horrors
shall be your inheritance, your entailed estate, "the portion of your
cup." The dregs of that cup you shall wring out, and drink for ever.
A drop of hell is terrible, but what must a full cup of torment be?
Think of ita cup of misery, but not a drop of mercy. O people of
God, how foolish is it to fear the faces of men who shall soon be
faggots in the fire of hell! Think of their end, their fearful end,
and all fear of them must be changed into contempt of their
threatenings, and pity for their miserable estate.

Verse 7. The delightful contrast of the last verse is well worthy of
our observation, and it affords another overwhelming reason why we
should be stedfast, unmoveable, not carried away with fear, or led to
adopt carnal expedients in order to avoid trial. "For the
righteous Lord loveth righteousness." It is not only his office
to defend it, but his nature to love it. He would deny himself if he
did not defend the just. It is essential to the very being of God
that he should be just; fear not, then, the end of all your trials,
but "be just, and fear not." God approves, and, if men oppose, what
matters it? "His countenance doth behold the upright." We need
never be out of countenance, for God countenances us. He observes, he
approves, he delights in the upright. He sees his own image in them,
an image of his own fashioning, and therefore with complacency he
regards them. Shall we dare to put forth our hand unto iniquity in
order to escape affliction? Let us have done with by-ways and short
turnings, and let us keep to that fair path of right along which
Jehovah's smile shall light us. Are we tempted to put our light under
a bushel, to conceal our religion from our neighbours? Is it
suggested to us that there are ways of avoiding the cross, and
shunning the reproach of Christ? Let us not hearken to the voice of
the charmer, but seek an increase of faith, that we may wrestle with
principalities and powers, and follow the Lord, fully going without
the camp, bearing his reproach. Mammon, the flesh, the devil, will
all whisper in our ear, "Flee as a bird to your mountain;" but let us
come forth and defy them all. "Resist the devil, and he will flee
from you." There is no room or reason for retreat. Advance! Let the
vanguard push on! To the front! all ye powers and passions of our
soul. On! on! in God's name, on! for "the Lord of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our refuge."

Whole Psalm. The most probable account of the occasion of this
Psalm is that given by Amyraldus. He thinks it was composed by David
while he was in the court of Saul, at a time when the hostility of
the king was beginning to show itself, and before it had broken out
into open persecution. David's friends, or those professing to be so,
advised him to flee to his native mountains for a time, and remain in
retirement, till the king should show himself more favourable. David
does not at that time accept the counsel, though afterwards he seems
to have followed it. This Psalm applies itself to the establishment
of the church against the calumnies of the world and the compromising
counsel of man, in that confidence which is to be placed in God the
Judge of all. W. Wilson, D.D., in loc., 1860.

Whole Psalm. If one may offer to make a modest conjecture, it
is not improbable this Psalm might be composed on the sad murder of
the priests by Saul (1 Samuel 22:19), when after the slaughter of
Abimelech, the high priest, Doeg, the Edomite, by command from Saul,
"slew in one day fourscore and five persons which wore a linen
ephod." I am not so carnal as to build the spiritual church of the
Jews on the material walls of the priests' city at Nob (which then by
Doeg was smitten with the edge of the sword), but this is most true,
that "knowledge must preserve the people;" and (Malachi 2:7), "The
priests' lips shall preserve knowledge;" and then it is easy to
conclude, what an earthquake this massacre might make in the
foundations of religion. Thomas Fuller.

Whole Psalm. Notice how remarkably the whole Psalm corresponds
with the deliverance of Lot from Sodom. This verse, with the angel's
exhortation, "Escape to the mountains, lest thou be consumed," and
Lot's reply, "I cannot escape to the mountains, lest some evil take
me and I die." Genesis 19:17-19. And again, "The Lord's seat is
in heaven, and upon the ungodly he shall rain snares, fire,
brimstone, storm and tempest," with "Then the Lord rained upon
Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire out of heaven:" and again
"His countenance will behold the thing that is just," with
"Delivered just Lot . . . for that righteous man vexed his righteous
soul with their ungodly deeds." 2 Peter 2: 7, 8. Cassidorus
(A.D., 560) in John Mason Neal's "Commentary on the Psalms, from
Primitive and Mediaeval Writers," 1860.

Whole Psalm. The combatants at the Lake Thrasymene are said to
have been so engrossed with the conflict that neither party perceived
the convulsions of nature that shook the ground

From a nobler cause, it is thus with the soldiers of the Lamb. They
believe, and, therefore, make no haste; nay, they can scarcely be
said to feel earth's convulsions as other men, because their eager
hope presses forward to the issue at the advent of the Lord.
Andrew A. Bonar.

Verse 1. "I trust in the Lord: how do ye say to my soul,
Swerve on to your mountain like a bird?" (others, "O thou
bird.") Saul and his adherents mocked and jeered David with such
taunting speeches, as conceiving that he knew no other shift or
refuge, but so betaking himself unto wandering and lurking on the
mountains; hopping, as it were, from one place to another like a
silly bird; but they thought to ensnare and take him well enough for
all that, not considering God who was David's comfort, rest and
refuge. Theodore Haak's "Translation of the Dutch Annotations, as
ordered by the Synod of Dort, in 1618." London, 1657.

Verse 1. "With Jehovah I have taken shelter; how say ye to
my soul, Flee, sparrows, to your hill?" "Your hill," that
hill from which you say your help cometh: a sneer. Repair to that
boasted hill, which may indeed give you the help which it gives the
sparrow: a shelter against the inclemencies of a stormy sky, no
defence against our power. Samuel Horsley, in loc.

Verse 1. "In the Lord put I my trust: how say ye to my
soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain?" The holy confidence of
the saints in the hour of great trial is beautifully illustrated by
the following ballad which Anne Askew, who was burned at Smithfield
in 1546, made and sang when she was in Newgate:

Like as the armed knight,
Appointed to the field,
With this world will I fight,
And Christ shall be my shield.

Faith is that weapon strong,
Which will not fail at need:
My foes, therefore, among,
Therewith will I proceed.

As it is had in strength
And force of Christe's way,
It will prevail at length,
Though all the devils say nay.

Faith in the fathers old
Obtained righteousness;
Which makes me very bold
To fear no world's distress.

I now rejoice in heart,
And hope bids me do so;
For Christ will take my part,
And ease me of my woe.

More enemies now I have
Than hairs upon my head:
Let them not me deprave,
But fight thou in my stead.

On thee my care I cast,
For all their cruel spite:
I set not by their haste;
For thou art my delight.

I am not she that list
My anchor to let fall
For every drizzling mist,
My ship substantial.

Not oft use I to write,
In prose, nor yet in rhyme;
Yet will I shew one sight
That I saw in my time.

I saw a royal throne,
Where justice should have sit,
But in her stead was one
Of moody, cruel wit.

Absorbed was righteousness,
As of the raging flood:
Satan, in his excess,
Sucked up the guiltless blood.

Then thought I, Jesus Lord,
When thou shall judge us all,
Hard it is to record
On these men what will fall.

Yet, Lord, I thee desire,
For that they do to me,
Let them not taste the hire
Of their iniquity.

Verse 1. "How say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your
mountain?" We may observe, that David is much pleased with the
metaphor in frequently comparing himself to a bird, and that of
several sorts: first, to an eagle (Psalm 103:5), "My youth is renewed
like the eagle's;" sometimes to an owl (Psalm 102:6), "I am like an
owl in the desert;" sometimes to a pelican, in the same verse, "Like
a pelican in the wilderness;" sometimes to a sparrow (Psalm 102:7),
"I watch, and am as a sparrow;" sometimes to a partridge, "As when
one doth hunt a partridge." I cannot say that he doth compare himself
to a dove, but he would compare himself (Psalm 55:6), "O that I had
the wings of a dove, for then I would flee away and be at rest." Some
will say, How is it possible that birds of so different a feather
should all so fly together as to meet in the character of David? To
whom we answer, That no two men can more differ one from another,
that the same servant of God at several times differeth from himself.
David in prosperity, when commanding, was like an eagle; in
adversity, when contemned, like an owl; in devotion, when
retired, like a pelican; in solitariness, when having no
company, (of Saul), like a partridge. This general
metaphor of a bird, which David so often used on himself, his
enemies in the first verse of this Psalm used on him, though not
particularising the kind thereof: "Flee as a bird to your
mountain;" that is, speedily betake thyself to thy God, in whom
thou hopest for succour and security.Seeing this counsel was both good in
itself, and good at this time, why doth David seem so angry and
displeased thereat? Those his words, "Why say you to my soul, Flee
as a bird to your mountain?" import some passion, at leastwise, a
disgust of the advice. It is answered, David was not offended with
the counsel, but with the manner of the propounding thereof. His
enemies did it ironically in a gibing, jeering way, as if his flying
thither were to no purpose, and he unlikely to find there the safety
he sought for. However, David was not hereby put out of conceit with
the counsel, beginning this Psalm with this his firm resolution,
"In the Lord put I my trust: how say ye then to my soul," etc.
Learn we from hence, when men give us good counsel in a jeering way,
let us take the counsel, and practice it; and leave them the jeer to
be punished for it. Indeed, corporal cordials may be envenomed by
being wrapped up in poisoned papers; not so good spiritual advice
where the good matter receives no infection from the ill manner of
the delivery thereof. Thus, when the chief priests mocked our Saviour
(Matthew 27:43), "He trusted in God, let him deliver him now if he
will have him." Christ trusted in God never a whit the less for the
fleere and flout which their profaneness was pleased to bestow upon
him. Otherwise, if men's mocks should make us to undervalue good
counsel, we might in this age be mocked out of our God, and Christ,
and Scripture, and heaven; the apostle Jude, verse 18, having
foretold that in the last times there should be mockers, walking
after their own lusts. Thomas Fuller.

Verse 1. It is as great an offence to make a new, as to deny
the true God. "In the Lord put I my trust;" how then "say
ye unto my soul" (ye seducers of souls), "that she should fly
unto the mountains as a bird;" to seek unnecessary and foreign
helps, as if the Lord alone were not sufficient? "The Lord is my
rock, and my fortress, and he that delivereth me, my God, and my
strength; in him will I trust: my shield, the horn of my salvation,
and my refuge. I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be
praised, so shall I be safe from mine enemies." "Whom have I in
heaven but thee," amongst those thousands of angels and saints, what
Michael or Gabriel, what Moses or Samuel, what Peter, what Paul? "and
there is none in earth that I desire in comparison of thee." John
King, 1608.

Verse 1. In temptations of inward trouble and terror, it is
not convenient to dispute the matter with Satan. David in Psalm
42:11, seems to correct himself for his mistake; his soul was cast
down within him, and for the cure of that temptation, he had prepared
himself by arguments for a dispute; but perceiving himself in a wrong
course, he calls off his soul from disquiet to an immediate
application to God and the promises, "Trust still in God, for I shall
yet praise him;" but here he is more aforehand with his work; for
while his enemies were acted by Satan to discourage him, he rejects
the temptation at first, before it settled upon his thoughts, and
chaseth it away as a thing that he would not give ear to. "In the
Lord put I my trust: how say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your
mountain?" And there are weighty reasons that should dissuade us
from entering the lists with Satan in temptation of inward trouble.
Richard Gilpin.

Verse 1. The shadow will not cool except in it. What good to
have the shadow though of a mighty rock, when we sit in the open sun?
To have almighty power engaged for us, and we to throw ourselves out
of it, by bold sallies in the mouth of temptation! The saints' falls
have been when they have run out of their trench and stronghold; for,
like the conies, they are a weak people in themselves, and their
strength lies in the rock of God's almightiness, which is their
habitation. William Gurnall.

Verse 1. The saints of old would not accept deliverances on
base terms. They scorned to fly away for the enjoyment of rest except
it were with the wings of a dove, covered with silver innocence. As
willing were many of the martyrs to die as to dine. The tormentors
were tired in torturing Blandina. "We are ashamed, O Emperor! The
Christians laugh at your cruelty, and grow the more resolute," said
one of Julian's nobles. This the heathen counted obstinacy; but they
knew not the power of the Spirit, nor the secret armour of proof,
which saints wear about their hearts. John Trapp.

Verse 2. "For, lo, the wicked bend their bow," etc.
This verse presents an unequal combat betwixt armed power,
advantaged with policy, on the one side; and naked
innocence on the other. First, armed power: "They bend their
bows, and make ready their arrows," being all the artillery of
that age; secondly, advantaged with policy: "that they may privily
shoot," to surprise them with an ambush unawares, probably
pretending amity and friendship unto them; thirdly, naked
innocence: if innocence may be termed naked, which is its own
armour; "at the upright in heart." Thomas Fuller.

Verse 2. "For, lo, the ungodly bend their bow, and make
ready their arrows within the quiver: that they may privily shoot at
them which are true of heart." The plottings of the chief priests
and Pharisees that they might take Jesus by subtlety and kill him.
They bent their bow, when they hired Judas Iscariot for the betrayal
of his Master; they made ready their arrows within the quiver when
they sought "false witnesses against Jesus to put him to death."
Matthew 26:59. "Them which are true of heart." Not alone the
Lord himself, the only true and righteous, but his apostles, and the
long line of those who should faithfully cleave to him from that time
to this. And as with the Master, so with the servants: witness the
calumnies and the revilings that from the time of Joseph's accusation
by his mistress till the present day, have been the lot of God's
people. Michael Ayguan, 1416, in J. M. Neale's
Commentary.

Verse 2. "That they may secretly shoot at them which are
upright in heart." They bear not their bows and arrows as
scarecrows in a garden of cucumbers, to fray, but to shoot,
not at stakes, but men; their arrows are jacula mortifera
(Psalm 7), deadly arrows, and lest they should fail to hit, they take
advantage of the dark, of privacy and secrecy; they shoot
privily. Now this is the covenant of hell itself. For what
created power in the earth is able to dissolve that work which
cruelty and subtlety, like Simeon and Levi, brothers in
evil, are combined and confederate to bring to pass? Where subtlety
is ingenious, insidious to invent, cruelty barbarous to execute,
subtlety giveth counsel, cruelty giveth the stroke. Subtlety ordereth
the time, the place, the means, accomodateth, concinnateth
circumstances; cruelty undertaketh the act: subtlety hideth the
knife, cruelty cutteth the throat: subtlety with a cunning head
layeth the ambush, plotteth the train, the stratagem; and cruelty
with as savage a heart, sticketh not at the dreadfullest, direfullest
objects, ready to wade up to the ankles, the neck, in a whole red sea
of human, yea, country blood: how fearful is their plight that are
thus assaulted! John King.

Verse 3. "If the foundations be destroyed, what can the
righteous do?" But now we are met with a giant objection, which
with Goliath must be removed, or else it will obstruct our present
proceedings. Is it possible that the foundations of religion
should be destroyed? Can God be in so long a sleep, yea, so long a
lethargy, as patiently to permit the ruins thereof? If he looks on,
and yet doth not see these foundations when destroyed, where
then is his omnisciency? If he seeth it, and cannot help it,
where then is his omnipotency? If he seeth it, can help it,
and will not, where then is his goodness and mercy?
Martha said to Jesus (John 11:21), "Lord, if thou hadst been here, my
brother had not died." But many will say, Were God effectually
present in the world with his aforesaid attributes, surely the
foundations had not died, had not been
destroyed. We answer negatively, that it is impossible that
the foundations of religion should ever be totally and
finally destroyed, either in relation to the church in
general, or in reference to every true and lively member thereof. For
the first, we have an express promise of Christ. Matthew 16:18. "The
gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Fundamenta tamen
stant inconcussa Sionis. And as for every particular Christian (2
Timothy 2:19), "Nevertheless, the foundation of God standeth sure,
having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his." However,
though for the reasons aforementioned in the objections (the
inconsistency thereof with the attributes of God's omnipotency,
omnisciency, and goodness), the foundations can never totally
and finally, yet may they partially be destroyed, quoad
gradum, in a fourfold degree, as followeth. First, in the
desires and utmost endeavours of wicked men,

They bring their

1. Hoc velle,
2. Hoc agere,
3. Totum posse.

If they destroy not the foundations, it is no thanks to them,
seeing all the world will bear them witness they have done their
best (that is, their worst), what their might and malice
could perform. Secondly, in their own vainglorious
imaginations: they may not only vainly boast, but also verily
believe that they have destroyed the foundations. Applicable
to this purpose, is that high rant of the Roman emperor (Luke 2:1):
"And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from
Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed." All the world!
whereas he had, though much, not all in Europe, little in Asia, less
in Africa, none in America, which was so far from being conquered, it
was not so much as known to the Romans. But hyperbole is not a
figure, but the ordinary language of pride; because indeed Augustus
had very much he proclaimeth himself to have all the world. . . .
Thirdly, the foundations may be destroyed as to all outward
visible illustrious apparition. The church in persecution is like
unto a ship in a tempest; down go all their masts, yea, sometimes for
the more speed they are forced to cut them down: not a piece of
canvas to play with the winds, no sails to be seen; they lie close
knotted to the very keel, that the tempest may have the less power
upon them, though when the storm is over, they can hoist up their
sails as high, and spread their canvas as broad as ever before. So
the church in the time of persecution feared, but especially
felt, loseth all gayness and gallantry which may attract and
allure the eyes of beholders, and contenteth itself with its own
secrecy. In a word, on the work-days of affliction she weareth her
worst clothes, whilst her best are laid up in her wardrobe, in sure
and certain hope that God will give her a holy and happy
day, when with joy she shall wear her best garments. Lastly, they
may be destroyed in the jealous apprehensions of the
best saints and servants of God, especially in their melancholy fits.
I will instance in no puny, but in a star of the first magnitude and
greatest eminency, even Elijah himself complaining (1 Kings 19:10):
"And I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it
away." Thomas Fuller.

Verse 3. "If." It is the only word of comfort in the
text, that what is said is not positive, but suppositive; not
thetical, but hypothetical. And yet this comfort which is but a spark
(at which we would willingly kindle our hopes), is quickly sadded
with a double consideration. First, impossible suppositions produce
impossible consequences, "As is the mother, so is the daughter."
Therefore, surely God's Holy Spirit would not suppose such a thing
but what was feasible and possible, but what either had, did, or
might come to pass. Secondly, the Hebrew word is not the conditional
im, si, si forte, but chi, quia, quoniam, because, and
(although here it be favourably rendered if), seemeth to
import, more therein, that the sad case had already happened in
David's days. I see, therefore, that this if, our only hope in
the text, is likely to prove with Job's friends, but a miserable
comforter. Well, it is good to know the worst of things, that we may
provide ourselves accordingly; and therefore let us behold this
doleful case, not as doubtful, but as done; not as feared, but felt;
not as suspected, but at this time really come to pass. Thomas
Fuller.

Verse 3. "If the foundations," etc. My text is an
answer to a tacit objection which some may raise; namely, that the
righteous are wanting to themselves, and by their own easiness and
inactivity (not daring and doing so much as they might and ought),
betray themselves to that bad condition. In whose defence David
shows, that if God in his wise will and pleasure seeth it fitting,
for reasons best known to himself, to suffer religion to be reduced
to terms of extremity, it is not placed in the power of the best man
alive to remedy and redress the same. "If the foundations be
destroyed, what can the righteous do?" My text is hung about with
mourning, as for a funeral sermon, and contains: First, a sad
case supposed, "If the foundations be destroyed." Secondly, a
sad question propounded, "What can the righteous do?" Thirdly,
a sad answer implied, namely, that they can do just nothing, as to
that point of re-establishing the destroyed foundation. Thomas
Fuller.

Verse 3. "If the foundations be destroyed," etc. The
civil foundation of a nation or people, is their laws and
constitutions. The order and power that's among them, that's the
foundation of a people; and when once this foundation is destroyed,
"What can the righteous do?" What can the best, the wisest in
the world, do in such a case? What can any man do, if there be not a
foundation of government left among men? There is no help nor answer
in such a case but that which follows in the fourth verse of the
Psalm, "The Lord is in his holy temple, the Lord's throne is in
heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men;"
as if he had said, in the midst of these confusions, when as it is
said (Psalm 82:5), "All the foundations of the earth are out of
course;" yet God keeps his course still, he is where he was and as he
was, without variableness or shadow of turning. Joseph
Caryl.

Verse 3. "The righteous." The righteous indefinitely,
equivalent to the righteous universally; not only the righteous as a
single arrow, but in the whole sheaf; not only the righteous in their
personal, but in their diffusive capacity. Were they all collected
into one body, were all the righteous living in the same age wherein
the foundations are destroyed, summoned up and modelled into
one corporation, all their joint endeavours would prove ineffectual
to the re-establishing of the fallen foundations, as not being
man's work, but only God's work to perform. Thomas Fuller.

Verse 3. "The foundations." Positions, the
things formerly fixed, placed, and settled. It is not said, if the
roof be ruinous, or if the side walls be shattered, but if the
foundations.

Verse 3. "Foundations be destroyed." In the plural.
Here I will not warrant my skill in architecture, but conceive this
may pass for an undoubted truth: it is possible that a building
settled on several entire foundations (suppose them
pillars) close one to another, if one of them fall, yet the
structure may still stand, or rather hang (at the least for a short
time) by virtue of the complicative, which it receiveth from
such foundations which still stand secure. But in case there be a
total rout, and an utter ruin of all the foundations,, none
can fancy to themselves a possibility of that building's subsistence.
Thomas Fuller.

Verse 3. "What CAN the righteous?" The
can of the righteous is a limited can, confined to the
rule of God's word; they can do nothing but what they
can lawfully do. 2 Corinthians 13:8. "For we can do
nothing against the truth, but for the truth:" Illud possumus,
quod jure possumus. Wicked men can do anything; their conscience,
which is so wide that it is none at all, will bear them out to act
anything how unlawful soever, to stab, poison, massacre, by any
means, at any time, in any place, whosoever standeth betwixt them and
the effecting of their desires. Not so the righteous; they have a
rule whereby to walk, which they will not, they must not, they dare
not, cross. If therefore a righteous man were assured, that by the
breach of one of God's commandments he might restore decayed
religion, and re-settle it statu quo prius, his hands, head,
and heart are tied up, he can do nothing, because their
damnation is just who say (Romans 3:8), "Let us do evil that
good may come thereof."

Verse 3. "Do." It is not said, What can they
think? It is a great blessing which God hath allowed injured
people, that though otherwise oppressed and straitened, they may
freely enlarge themselves in their thoughts. Thomas Fuller.

Verse 3. Sinning times have ever been the saints' praying
times: this sent Ezra with a heavy heart to confess the sin of his
people, and to bewail their abominations before the Lord. Ezra 9. And
Jeremiah tells the wicked of his degenerate age, that "his soul
should weep in secret places for their pride." Jeremiah 13:17.
Indeed, sometimes sin comes to such a height, that this is almost all
the godly can do, to get into a corner, and bewail the general
pollutions of the age. "If the foundations be destroyed, what can
the righteous do?" Such dismal days of national confusion our
eyes have seen, when foundations of government were destroyed, and
all hurled into military confusion. When it is thus with a people,
"What can the righteous do?" Yes, this they may, and should
do, "fast and pray." There is yet a God in heaven to be sought to,
when a people's deliverance is thrown beyond the help of human policy
or power. Now is the fit time to make their appeal to God, as the
words following hint: "The Lord is in his holy temple, the Lord's
throne is in heaven;" in which words God is presented sitting in
heaven as a temple, for their encouragement, I conceive, in such a
desperate state of affairs, to direct their prayers thither for
deliverance. And certainly this hath been the engine that hath been
instrumental, above any, to restore this poor nation again, and set
it upon the foundation of that lawful government from which it had so
dangerously departed. William Gurnall.

Verse 4. The infinite understanding of God doth exactly know
the sins of men; he knows so as to consider. He doth not only know
them, but intently behold them: "His eyelids try the children of
men," a metaphor taken from men, that contract the eyelids when
they would wistly and accurately behold a thing: it is not a
transient and careless look. Stephen Charnock.

Verse 4. "His eyes behold," etc. God searcheth not as
man searcheth, by enquiring into that which before was hid from him;
his searching is no more but his beholding; he seeth the heart, he
beholdeth the reins; God's very sight is searching. Hebrews 4:13.
"All things are naked, and opened unto his eyes," tetrachlidmena,
dissected or anatomised. He hath at once as exact a view of
the most hidden things, the very entrails of the soul, as if they had
been with never so great curiosity anatomised before him. Richard
Alleine, 1611-1681.

Verse 4. "His eyes behold," etc. Consider that God not
only sees into all you do, but he sees it to that very end that he
may examine and search into it. He doth not only behold you with a
common and indifferent look, but with a searching, watchful, and
inquisitive eye: he pries into the reasons, the motives, the ends of
all your actions. "The Lord's throne is in heaven: his eyes
behold, his eyelids try, the children of men." Revelation 1:14,
where Christ is described, it is said, his eyes are as a flame of
fire: you know the property of fire is to search and make trial
of those things which are exposed unto it, and to separate the dross
from the pure metal: so, God's eye is like fire, to try and examine
the actions of men: he knows and discerns how much your very purest
duties have in them of mixture, and base ends of formality,
hypocrisy, distractedness, and deadness: he sees through all your
specious pretenses, that which you cast as a mist before the eyes of
men when yet thou art but a juggler in religion: all your tricks and
sleights of outward profession, all those things that you use to
cozen and delude men withal, cannot possibly impose upon him: he is a
God that can look through all those fig-leaves of outward profession,
and discern the nakedness of your duties through them. Ezekiel
Hopkins, D.D.

Verse 4. "His eyes behold," etc. Take God into thy
counsel. Heaven overlooks hell. God at any time can tell thee what
plots are hatching there against thee. William Gurnall.

Verse 4. "His eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of
men." When an offender, or one accused for any offence, is
brought before a judge, and stands at the bar to be arraigned, the
judge looks upon him, eyes him, sets his eye upon him, and he bids
the offender look up in his face: "Look upon me," saith the judge,
"and speak up:" guiltiness usually clouds the forehead and clothes
the brow; the weight of guilt holds down the head! the evil doer
hath an ill look, or dares not look up; how glad is he if the
judge looks off him. We have such an expression here, speaking of the
Lord, the great Judge of heaven and earth: "His eyelids try the
children of men," as a judge tries a guilty person with his eye,
and reads the characters of his wickedness printed in his face. Hence
we have a common speech in our language, such a one looks
suspiciously, or, he hath a guilty look. At that great
gaol-delivery described in Revelation 6:16, All the prisoners cry out
to be hid from the face of him that sat upon the throne. They
could not look upon Christ, and they could not endure Christ should
look upon them; the eyelids of Christ try the children of men. . . .
Wickedness cannot endure to be under the observation of any eye much
less of the eye of justice. Hence the actors of it say, "Who seeth
us?" It is very hard not to show the guilt of the heart in the
face, and it is as hard to have it seen there. Joseph
Caryl.

Verse 5. "The Lord trieth the righteous." Except our
sins, there is not such plenty of anything in all the world as there
is of troubles which come from sin, as one heavy messenger came to
Job after another. Since we are not in paradise, but in the
wilderness, we must look for one trouble after another. As a bear
came to David after a lion, and a giant after a bear, and a king
after a giant, and Philistines after a king, so, when believers have
fought with poverty. they shall fight with envy; when they have
fought with envy, they shall fight with infamy; when the have fought
with infamy, they shall fight with sickness; they shall be like a
labourer who is never out of work. Henry Smith.

Verse 5. "The Lord trieth the righteous." Times of
affliction and persecution will distinguish the precious from the
vile, it will difference the counterfeit professor from the true.
Persecution is a Christian's touchstone, it is a lapis lydius
that will try what metal men are made of, whether they be silver or
tin, gold or dross, wheat or chaff, shadow or substance, carnal or
spiritual, sincere or hypocritical. Nothing speaks out more soundness
and uprightness than a pursuing after holiness, even then when
holiness is most afflicted, pursued, and persecuted in the world: to
stand fast in fiery trials argues much integrity within. Thomas
Brooks.

Verse 5. Note the singular opposition of the two sentences.
God hates the wicked, and therefore in contrast he loves the
righteous; but it is here said that he tries them: therefore it
follows that to try and to love are with God the same thing. C. H.
S.

Verse 6. "Upon the wicked he shall rain snares." Snares
to hold them; then if they be not delivered, follow fire and
brimstone, and they cannot escape. This is the case of a sinner if he
repent not; if God pardon not, he is in the snare of Satan's
temptation, he is in the snare of divine vengeance; let him therefore
cry aloud for his deliverance, that he may have his feet in a large
room. The wicked lay snares for the righteous, but God either
preventeth them that their souls ever escape them, or else he
subverteth them: "The snares are broken and we are delivered." No
snares hold us so fast as those of our own sins; they keep down our
heads, and stoop us that we cannot look up: a very little ease they
are to him that hath not a seared conscience. Samuel Page,
1646.

Verse 6. "He shall rain snares." As in hunting with the
lasso, the huntsman casts a snare from above upon his prey to
entangle its head or feet, so shall the Lord from above with many
twistings of the line of terror, surround, bind, and take captive the
haters of his law. C. H. S.

Verse 6. "He shall rain snares," etc. He shall rain
upon them when they least think of it, even in the midst of their
jollity, as rain falls on a fair day. Or, he shall rain down the
vengeance when he sees good, for it rains not always. Though he
defers it, yet it will rain. William Nicholson, Bishop of
Gloucester, in "David's Harp Strung and Tuned," 1662.

Verse 6. "Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and
brimstone, and an horrible tempest." The strange dispensation of
affairs in this world is an argument which doth convincingly prove
that there shall be such a day wherein all the involucra and
entanglements of providence shall be clearly unfolded. Then shall the
riddle be dissolved, why God hath given this and that profane wretch
so much wealth, and so much power to do mischief: is it not that
they might be destroyed for ever? Then shall they be called to a
strict account for all that plenty and prosperity for which they are
now envied; and the more they have abused, the more dreadful will
their condemnation be. Then it will be seen that God gave them not as
mercies, but as "snares." It is said that God "will rain on
the wicked snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest:"
when he scatters abroad the desirable things of this world, riches,
honours, pleasures, etc., then he rains "snares" upon them;
and when he shall call them to an account for these things, then he
will rain upon them "fire and brimstone, and an horrible
tempest" of his wrath and fury. Dives, who caroused on earth,
yet, in hell could not obtain so much as one poor drop of water to
cool his scorched and flaming tongue: had not his excess and
intemperance been so great in his life, his fiery thirst had not been
so tormenting after death; and therefore, in that sad item that
Abraham gives him (Luke 16:25), he bids him "remember that thou,
in thy lifetime, receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus
evil things; but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented." I
look upon this as a most bitter and a most deserved sarcasm;
upbraiding him for his gross folly, in making the trifles of this
life his good things. Thou hast received thy good things, but now
thou art tormented. Oh, never call Dive's purple and delicious fare
good things, if they thus end in torments! Was it good for him
to be wrapped in purple who is now wrapped in flames? Was it good for
him to fare deliciously who was only thereby fatted up against the
day of slaughter? Ezekiel Hopkins.

Verse 6. "Snares, fire and brimstone, storm and tempest:
this shall be the portion of their cup." After the judgment
follows the condemnation: pre-figured as we have seen, by the
overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah. "Snares:" because the
allurements of Satan in this life will be their worst punishments in
the next; the fire of anger, the brimstone of impurity, the tempest
of pride, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride
of life. "This shall be their portion;" compare it with the
psalmist's own saying, "The Lord himself is the portion of my
inheritance and my cup." Psalm 16:5. Cassidorus, in J. M. Neale's
Commentary.

Verse 6. "The portion of their cup." Hebrew, the
allotment of their cup. The expression has reference to the custom of
distributing to each guest his mess of meat. William French and
George Skinner, 1842.

Verse 7. That God may give grace without glory is
intelligible; but to admit a man to communion with him in glory
without grace, is not intelligible. It is not agreeable to God's
holiness to make any inhabitant of heaven, and converse freely with
him in a way of intimate love, without such a qualification of grace:
"The righteous Lord loveth righteousness;" his countenance doth
behold the upright;" he looks upon him with a smiling eye, and
therefore he cannot favourably look upon an unrighteous person; so
that this necessity is not founded only in the command of God that we
should be renewed, but in the very nature of the thing, because God,
in regard to his holiness, cannot converse with an impure creature.
God must change his nature, or the sinner's nature must be changed.
There can be no friendly communion between two of different natures
without the change of one of them into the likeness of the other.
Wolves and sheep, darkness and light, can never agree. God cannot
love a sinner as a sinner, because he hates impurity by a necessity
of nature as well as a choice of will. It is as impossible for him to
love it as to cease to be holy. Stephen Charnock.

Verse 1. Teacheth us to trust in God, how great soever our
dangers be; also that we shall be many times assaulted to make us put
far from us this trust, but yet that we must cleave unto it, as the
anchor of our souls, sure and steadfast. Thomas Wilcocks.

Verse 1. The advice of cowardice, and the jeer of insolence,
both answered by faith. LessonAttempt no other answer.

Verse 2. The craftiness of our spiritual enemies.

Verse 3. This may furnish a double discourse.I. If God's oath and promise could
remove, what could we do? Here the answer is easy.II. If all earthly things fail,
and the very State fall to pieces, what can we do? We can suffer
joyfully, hope cheerfully, wait patiently, pray earnestly, believe
confidently, and triumph finally.